Hair drier



Dec. 18, 1962 Filed March 28, 1958 E. M. TOELLNER HAIR DRIER 2 Sheets-Sheet l E dward M. Toe/Iner 1 N VEN TOR.

Y WWW Dec. 18, 1962 E. M. TOELLNER 3,068,587

HAIR DRIER Filed March 28, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I Edward M. Toe/Iner INVENTOR.

/ 2 20 I BY United States Patent ()fiice 3,068,587 Patented Dec. 18, 1962 3,068,587 HAIR DRIER Edward M. Toellner, 2410 Wauuona Way, Madison, Wis. Filed Mar. 28, 1958, Ser. No. 724,760 1 Claim. (Cl. 34-48) This invention relates to hair driers and more particularly to a commercial type of hair drier having a number of improved features.

In brief, the invention is embodied in a hair drier which enables a persons hair to be comfortably dried in a much briefer time than is presently required by commercially available driers. This is achieved by a controlled flow of air through the drier. The air acts as a vehicle to carry the moisture away from the hair. A desiccant is used to dehydrate the air entering the drier to as low a moisture content as possible, The exhaust air temperature is controlled so as to maintain the drying operation at as high a level as possible and still not make the person uncomfortably hot. By using these principles, the time required to dry a persons hair is reduced from 40 minutes, which is the accepted or usual time requirement, to 16 minutes.

The hair drier is preferably used with a stand that supports the main housing within which most of the parts of the drier are assembled. There is a single motor in the main housing which operates both a primary fan and a secondary or recirculating fan. A regeneration circuit is operatively connected with the primary fan in order to bleed oif a small fraction of the air for passing through a desiccant container (silica gel). In this way the drier, while it is in operation, automatically restores the desiccant. A second desiccant container has the principal air passing through it and entering the main inlet of the primary fan. The regeneration circuit, then, would include the primary fan, a small fraction air bleed connected with it, and one of two desiccant containers. Meanwhile the other of the pair of desiccant containers is used for the primary function of dehydrating the air before it enters the drier housing.

After entering the housing, the air is passed through a circuitous travel in and around the hair of the user with a part of the air being exhausted but while exhausting, having exposed thereto a thermo-responsive element. This automatically controls the heater in the housing, separating it from control of the person whose hair is being dried. This has been found to be a source of difliculty. Persons using the drier often for-get the temperature control which they are ordinarily provided with until the drier becomes too hot. Then these persons will quickly turn the control to have the drier become as cool as possible and as quickly as possible. This ruins the efficiency of the drier and most of all, makes it uncomfortable for the user.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is an elevational view of a typical drier constructed in accordance with the invention.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the drier in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 33 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 44 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 5 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view of a typical desiccant container forming a component of the invention.

FIGURE 7 is a schematic view showing the heater and the thermostatic control for the heater.

In the accompanying drawings there is a stand 10 on which support 12 is adjustably mounted. Upper yoke 14 is adjustably associated with the stand and has a pair of trunnions 16 by which the main housing 18 of the drier 20 is supported. Locks (unshown) are connected with the trunnions, yoke and housing to hold the housing 18 in the correct orientation.

The housing has a smoothly curved inner wall 24 within which the hair of the person 26 is to be fitted. Annular, flexible shroud 28 is attached, for example by band 30, to the open end of housing 20. Wall 24 is perforated for the free movement of air therethrough as shown by the arrows. A second wall 34 has a central opening 36 in its inner end and in axial alignment with the main longitudinal axis of the housing 20. Wall 34 follows thecontour of wall 24 but is spaced therefrom to provide an air duct 38 therebetween. Supporting ribs 40 extend between walls 24 and 36 to hold them properly spaced from each other and to form annular rows of air passageways 44 and 46 respectively (FIG. 2). This heater is preferably an electric heater whose energization is controlled by a thermostatic element 50 (FIGS. 7 and 2) located in one of the discharge ports 52 that registers the ambient atmosphere with passage way 38. Port 52 is one of a plurality of such ports to exhaust a small quantity of air to the atmosphere and is made by short ducts extending between walls 34 and the wall 21 of the housing 20.

.Air circulation is obtained .by an electric motor 60 that is mounted on the motor mount 62 in the neck 23 of housing 20. The motor has a shaft 64 that has impellers 66 and 68 respectively secured to it. The impeller 68 has broadly curved blades and is located rather close to the heater 48 and in a part of the space between wall-s 34 and 21. To prevent vibration and shaft wobble, a substantial bearing 70 is carried by supports '71 in the housing 20 and is located near the impeller 68. This is the secondary air circulating fan while the air impeller 66 is part of the primary fan, being attached to the opposite end of shaft 64. It is in a fan casing or shroud 76 that has a main air inlet duct 78 at its center and a motor shaft bearing 79 carried by it and through which a part of shaft 64 is passed. Duct 78 extends through a sleeve 80 at the neck end of the housing 20 and this supports and secures the sleeve 78 in place. Coupling 82 attaches air conduit 84 to the duct 78 and is in registry with the duct. The primary air enters duct 78 through conduit 84 and enters the cham ber 86 in the fan casing 76. The main air is passed through large ports 88 in the wall of casing 76 but a fractional part of the air is bled through pipe Q0 that is attached to a peripheral part of the casing 76. A centrifugal bleed is achieved in order to constitute a part of a regeneration circuit for the air.

Two containers 92 and 91 are carried on support 12 and they each contain a desiccant, for example silica gel. The bottoms of the containers, see FIGURE 6, each have openings 93 and these openings constitute an air passage for the containers. This will be either the entrance or discharge depending on the direction of flow. A heater 94 is in container 92 (identical to container 91) and has an electric plug connection 95 for a source of electrical potential. Filter, for example screen 96 is at the neck of the container 82 and is near coupling 97 that connects the pipe 98 to the top of the container 92.

In use the regeneration circuit operates in this way: a small fraction of air is bled from the primary fan through pipe to the desiccant container 92. This Opening 36 has heater 48 at its marginal edge.

container contains silica gel that is saturated or partially saturated and is being regenerated. This fraction of air removes the water vapor liberated from the desiccant by the heater 94 while the heater is doing its job as a moisture liberating agent. Hence, the bled air is s o cool e desicc nt a t r nd d rin e e r so that'it may be used almost immediately thereafter. Since it is cooled with dehydrated air, the capacity of the desiccant after regeneration is not decreased by the cooling air. Having assumed that container 92 is in the regeneration circuit, container 91 is the container that is being used for hair drying in the illustration of FIGURE 1. Therefore, the ports in the bottom of container 91 are air inlet ports, while the ports (passages 93) in the bottom of container 92 are simultaneously serving as air discharge ports.

The foregoing -is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention said discharge port for controlling said heater, an electric motor in said housing, a primary blower and a recirculation blower driven by said motor and located in said housing, said primary blower having an air inlet and an air outlet to propel air toward and into said recirculation blower, a desiccant container registered with said inlet, means associated with said desiccant container for regenerating the desiccant, and means to conduct a frac- 1 tional part of the air delivered by said primary blower to the desiccant container to cool the desiccant during regeneration.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,976,509 Olsen Oct. 9, 1934 2,083,732 Moore et al. June 15, 1937 2,190,168 Armistead Feb. 13, 1940 2,278,854 Hunsicker Apr. 7, 1942 2,332,639 Hudson Oct. 26, 1943 2,453,364 Fears Nov. 9, 1948 2,478,393 Haarman Aug. 9, 1949 2,621,423 Clark Dec. 16, 1952 2,621,752 Riley Dec. 16, 1952 2,747,681 Schufton et al. May 29, 1956 2,765,868 Parks Oct. 9, 1956 2,773,313 OConnor Dec. 11, 1956 2,832,157 Hudson Apr. 29, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 491,085 Great Britain Aug. 25, 1938 1,069,275. France Feb. 10, 1 954 

